Week 6 How People Learn
Bransford, et. al. (2004). How People Learn, Chapters 1 & 9. Learning: From Speculation To Science I believe that using neuroscience for learning contributes a high value to educational area. People are not only social beings but also physical creature. Therefore knowing their physical activities like how their brain work will help to educators to design better education areas, curriculum and learning goals for students. I also feel knowing students prior knowledge will help teachers to build current learning environment in terms of those known information so that meaningful learning can occur among students. From what I have read so far in my whole life, I have never find a logical explanation that explains we can use animals which they have no control on their learning to explain how people learn. First of all, people are way different from animals when it comes to something that needs use your brain to create logical something. Yes, they do thing which any human being cannot do. However, it is because of their programmed creation. People evolve every single day with new information, they choose their way of life. A person can choose not to eat meat and become vegetarian but any of the animals change their diet or anything that they have naturally. So I am strongly disagree to comparing people with animals and seeing how people learn. This is a very critical point. Teachers or educators also should not try to teach things as if they are teaching to a machine, they should know students prior knowledge to shape the curriculum, help students to find their way of learning, design the classroom environment and organize the knowledge for students. “ There is a good deal of evidence that learning is enhanced when teachers pay attention to the knowledge and beliefs that learners bring to a learning task, use this knowledge as a starting point for new instruction, and monitor students’ changing conceptions as instruction proceeds.”(p.11)